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8 - The Church in Mission

from Part II - Conciliar Themes and Reception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2020

By
Stephen Bevans
Edited by
Richard R. Gaillardetz
Richard R. Gaillardetz
Affiliation:
Boston College, Massachusetts
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Summary

This essay proposes that the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council is best characterized as a “communion-in-mission.” A first section shows that the council was a “missionary council” from start to finish. A second section argues that the council worked from a renewed understanding of mission that was rooted in the Mission of God and inclusive of inculturation, justice, and dialogue. The final section suggests that there is a growing reception of the council’s missionary ecclesiology, expressed succinctly in Pope Francis’s description of the church as a “community of missionary disciples.”

Keywords

Second Vatican Councilmissionecclesiology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Vatican II , pp. 136 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Bevans, Stephen. “Beyond the New Evangelization: Toward a Missionary Theology for the Twenty-First Century.” In A Church with Open Doors: Catholic Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium, edited by Gaillardetz, Richard R. and Hahnenberg, Edward P.. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Bevans, Stephen. “Revisiting Mission at Vatican II: Theology and Practice for Today’s Missionary Church.” In 50 Years On: Probling the Riches of Vatican II, edited by Scholtenover, David G.. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Bevans, Stephen and Gros, Jeffrey. Evangelization and Religious Freedom: Ad Gentes, Dignitatis Humanae. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Gaillardetz, Richard R. An Unfinished Council: Vatican II, Pope Francis, and the Renewal of Catholicism. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, a Michael Glazier Book, 2015.Google Scholar
Gaillardetz, Richard R. Ecclesiology for a Global Church: A People Called and Sent. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.Google Scholar
Gaillardetz, Richard R. The Church in the Making: Lumen Gentium, Christus Dominus, Orientalium Ecclesiarum. Mahwah, NJ and New York: Paulist Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Ormerod, Neil. Re-Visioning the Church: An Experiment in Systematic-Historical Ecclesiology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope Francis, . Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2013.Google Scholar

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